We had a delicious set of results from that cooking class-- little did we know that we would be following the afternoon's big meal with an gigantic feast/hospital staff party! We drove to the far outskirts of HCMC (45+minutes?) to a restaurant the size of a couple of football fields, owned by a family member of the hospital staff.
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The kid table |
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Lots of the therapists brought their kids! Some kids we first met 8 years ago--
it's great to see them growing up! |
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soft-shelled crab |
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Great insistence that we sing karaoke. To our relief, there was a separate English-language songlist. We rejected "Unchained Melody" in favor of "Summer Nights" from _Grease_.
Notice that once we started, no one made eye contact with us. It was not my finest karaoke moment. |
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Giao, the head of the department, has a great singing voice. |
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I was able to get through the chorus of Lionel Ritchie's "Hello",
which the rest of the hospital therapists could do better than I could |
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And then, there were presents given out to everyone! More on that below.... |
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We drew numbers for presents, and Stacy and I were mysteriously the only ones that received little pouches with hair ties in them. Everyone else got utilitarian gifts, like toothpaste, cooking oil, or shampoo. I suspect there was a little tinkering with the numbers on the presents!
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no , not an aquarium-- these were fish available for consumption |
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ginormous prawn |
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octopi |
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The waitstaff use bicycles and roller skates to get around the premises! |
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an artificial lake in the middle of the restaurant |
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Definitely a happy party |
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Trung and daughter karaoke |
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I am grateful that Sai Gon beer is around 4%, and that Vietnamese parties typically wrap up by 9pm |
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Giao and Stacy talking shop |
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in a taxi, looking at Saturday night traffic on the way home |
Coming up-- our last 2 days in HCMC, including our lectures....
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